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#twittermeetsinDelhi2014 Day 1

It was September end.I was being rebellious. I already declared, “Nothing can stop me from going to Delhi”.”But,you are going to meet people,not for sightseeing!” replied dad in an inquisitive tone.”Yes dad. That’s why I am going to Delhi!” I replied in an affirmative way.”Hahha, I see a future HR manager in you” and dad laughed it off.But I knew, at the end moment he would agree.And I was so cunning, I already had planned my next trip to Surat already while I was at Delhi.

I was planning everything at home, when dad said, he won’t get me tickets. I planned my itinerary,bought tickets and, ended up with some tickets which I disliked. But I knew, it was just one day away, so I could bear that one day train journey, just to meet up some amazing people.And, when dad came to know that I had already bought tickets, he felt sad. But to make things easier, he made arrangements for me at a hotel where he knew the manager beforehand. So he booked the hotel for me, and here I left, for Delhi. A new place, with new thoughts, and new hopes.

And it all happened, as I expected. While getting down, at the New Delhi Railway station, incidentally, the song “Delhi 6” played, with my headphones on, and I felt kinda amazing. It was indirectly an uplifting mood kinda day for me. Though, that’s another case I was duped by the cab drivers for a walking distance, but, it was worth. Everyone is duped for the first time when you land up in a new city. You cannot deny that,right?

Then, after a lot of brainstorming and various other stuff,I reached the hotel. Called up the famous Twitter celeb Ankit Jain aka @indiantweeter and he instantly got ready to meet me up. Though, the itinerary for the four days was, absolutely going unplanned right from the very moment I got down at the New Delhi Railway Station.But who cares!

“Yeh Delhi hai mere yaaar,
Bas Ishq Mohabbat Pyaar”.

So, I reached the hotel,threw my bags and left on to explore Dilwalon ki Delhi.Reached the nearest metro which was, New Delhi itself.One wise thing, I did,which I think was,instantly buying a travel Metro Card.And, within moments, I was inside, the New Delhi Metro Network. Sincerely speaking, I learnt all the stations,network routes,connectors,midways and, within a few moments, I helped people switching metros and telling routes, inspite of the fact that I myself never visited places then. E.g how can one visit Dwarka,Gurgaon,Noida on the very first day? Not really possible for a newbie in the city. Though, in the later days, I was absolutely normal travelling long routes and also in the bus as well. Need to improvise though. Anyways, coming back to the scenario, I called up Ankit and, he said, “Chandni Chowk aa ja. Will hang around!”. So I hopped into the Metro, and left for Chandni Chowk. Getting down at Chandni Chowk,I realized, I had a lot of time. So, I decided to visit the Red Fort, and the adjacent stuff. It was pretty cool and after a lot of time, I realized,that it was late and I had to meetup Ankit. So, hurriedly I left the huge Red Fort Complex and skipped Jama Masjid, and landed up at in front of the Gurudwara Sisganj Sahib and, met up Ankit. After exchanging talks about Delhi and his personal experience about Mumbai and various cities, we had the best Aloo-Chaat at the place. I do not exactly remember the name of the place but, I remember that, the person had been selling Aloo-Chaat since the past 100+ years. After a lot of discussion and information exchange,he remembered that he had some work. So, we both left together.And I returned to the hotel to take some rest.

Just after I reached the hotel, without wasting any time,I called up, madam @ttrinadasgupta or precisely, Trina Dasgupta. ! She was like, Saturdays and Sundays I am mostly busy, so, you better do one thing. Hop onto the yellow line and I’ll pick you up from the Huda City metro. I replied, okie done. So, this one thing I did love was, after a specific time, you could see that the plate number of cars were already changing. So, I already had my metro card, and after having coffee at the busy busy “Rajiv Chowk” metro station, I left for Huda City Metro, or to be precise, Gurgaon! She also ensured that, I do not go haywire and, to ping her whenever I cross Arjangarh metro station. And,when I got down to Huda City metro, she gave the directions to stand in front of the Max hospital,because due to traffic(oh yes, Mumbai is not the only victim ya!) she had to wait and then take a U-turn. And, after a few moments, we met. And, she lived upto my expectations. The Trina Dasgupta I expected,she was absolutely the same! Beautiful, caring, and cheerful. I was pretty amazed with her cheerfulness and excitement to meetup. Though, being true, I was not able to match her energetic levels inspite of me being the younger one. After meeting her up, we had a lot of talk in her car itself. Yes, that was her energetic level.And she inquired about my future career plans and so on. She also, informed me about some small tips, tricks and hacks about how to live and survive in the city called “Delhi”. Then, we went to her favourite restaurant, and then there too, we exchanged talks, but I feel, it should have been more appropriate if I could write “exchanged lives”. The “I Miss Kolkata” essence , “Durga Pujo is the best in Kolkata”, “No wonder, you’re too young to explore the world”, “Koto boyesh hoyeche haan!”(What’s even your age ya?) and lots of such talk went on. And then, she left me at the Huda city metro station and she insisted me to call her back when I reach the hotel. Though, it was a bit late according to Delhi standards, but if it were in Mumbai, the time would have been normal to return back home.

And thus an amazing Day 1 was spent. do keep an eye on the blog for the remaining days and some more awesome people whom I’ve met and greeted.
And last but not the least, Delhi has more friendly people than one could even imagine. Cheers!
P.S : High hopes to get into FMS, Delhi or MDI, Gurgaon for Post-grads. Do wish me luck.